rec.arts.movies.past-films

> To inject just a little film discussion into this otherwise quite self-
> sufficient argument, I'd like to voice my hearty approval of "Best
> Years...," especially the score by Hugo Friedhoffer. Assured and solid
> as Wyler's direction was, nicely balanced as the script was, and .
> as most of the performances were, Friedhoffer's score seems to me the
> element that really places the photo-play on a higher level.
>
> His score is justly acclaimed for the somewhat showy but extremely
> effective sequence in the airplane graveyard, where Friedhoffer takes
> an emotional episode of the Dana Andrews character (in the cockpit of
> a soon-to-be-scrapped fighter plane) and converts it into a full-blown
> battle flashback. No montage super-impositions, no thought-balloon
> inserts, and no voice over interior dialogue - Yet we know precisely
> what is happening in the mind and the spirit of the character from the
> musical content. There are many other fine examples - in the earlier
> reels, the solid, Coplandesque Americana that accompanies the re-
> introduction of the ex-soldiers to their native landscape, the
> wonderful theme that overflows on the home arrival of the Frederick
> March character, etc. It's simply a great score written with skill and
> depth of feeling, and one of the best Post WWII musical experiences.